THE WORD AND THE SAINT

24th June,  2015: Birthday of St. John the Baptist

The Gospels narrate a long list of similarities between the stories of John and Jesus... the apparently 'impossible' conditions in which the mothers conceived, the direct intervention of God in the conception, the apparitions of the angels to the fathers, the prior choice of the name of the child to be born - one simple message is the image of John the Baptist as the precursor of Jesus. But the birth narratives of John and Jesus, together have another important message to reveal to us and that is, we are not here by chance! We are part of a complex plan, an eternal design of God. We are willed into existence by God; we are loved into existence, by the Creator! We have a purpose, because God knew us right when we were being formed in the womb of our mothers! We have a special mission because, it is the Lord who has called us by name, even before we were born! We are chosen in the eyes of God, because as St. Paul says, God has chosen us before the foundations of the world in Christ Jesus, to be holy and blameless! We are created, called, commissioned and destined to usher in the Reign of God, as John announced the coming of Christ. Let us become aware of our call, our purpose and our destiny, which is much larger than the petty preoccupations of our daily worries!

WORD 2day: 23rd June, 2015

Fairness and Justice: a sense of God

Tuesday, 12th week in Ordinary Time

Gen 13: 2, 5-18; Mt 7: 6, 12-14

I was impressed by a child in the train the other day. She had her younger brother with her and every time the mother was giving anything to her or buying something for her, she instantly would turn to her younger brother as if asking her mother, what about him? The curious climax was, when she returned the biscuit packet that she was sharing with her brother, to her mother with just one biscuit remaining in it. When asked why she left it behind there, she said there is only one, how we two will take it? I began wondering where has this kind of a spirit gone, in the world today!

Selfishness and greed, jealousy and competition is the order of the day. Hardly anyone wishes to do anything if that does not bring them dividends atleast in some measure or kind. Abraham's dealing with his brother Lot and the suggestion of doing what you would wish others do to you, are narrow doors. Those won't be the kind of behaviour that the mainstream humanity will choose spontaneously today. But as disciples of the Lord, our choice has to be precisely this: a choice for fairness and justice, that would be the right sense of being a person of God. 

WORD 2day : 22nd June, 2015

To let go!

Monday,  12th week in Ordinary Time
Gen 12: 1-9; Mt 7: 1-5

We will be presented with Abraham for our reflection for the next few days. What was so special about Abraham? From the very first moment the Word clarifies that. Leave your country and your people,  calls the Lord and there he is doing it with such confidence. He lets go of everything,  everything that gave him an identity.

The Gospel presents to us a similar and greater challenge: to let go... of our opinions and judgements and prejudices of people and to be open minded. How many new experiences we would have lost because of our opinionated approach! How many enriching encounters we would have lost because of our prefixed judgements! How many growth experiences we would have lost because of our prejudiced mindset. How prepared are we to let go?

WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE HAVE!

21st June 2015: 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Job 38: 1, 8-11; 2 Cor 5: 14-17; Mk 4: 35-41

Quiet! Be Still... and you will know what a mighty God you have!

We are so fond of lamenting, fretting, complaining, grumbling, panting and gasping, that we fail to notice the mighty presence of God right beside us as we struggle in the daily storms of life. It takes that moment when the Lord finally intervenes and says: Quiet! Be Still...I am here, right here, in the midst of it all. Don't you see? Don't you believe? Haven't you experienced my interventions in the past? Haven't you learnt that lesson yet? 

Behold! a New Thing... the mighty God is creating it for you!

At times the turbulence that you go through may be a new thing in the making! Yesterday while we were on a task in place near the East Coast, a person with me commented looking at the plaque on a building: if it were not for the Tsunami, we would not have had this building here! Though it may sound less sensitive to the disaster and its effects, the statement triggered an insight in me. At times the turbulences that we experience in life, may lead to newer and fresher outlooks on events. 

Be Urged by the Love of Christ... the mightiest experience of God!

In every thing and at every moment, be urged by the love of Christ; a love that so powerfully brings the presence of God into our life. Allow God into your life, feel the presence of God and enjoy the love that God continues to shower on you - a love so immense and unconditional. If only we taste that love of God, we would become so filled with that love that we will overflow with that love. Our words, our thoughts, our gestures, our relations, our interactions and everything in us will be flooded with that love and people around us will experience it. That love will urge me to be loving; that love will push me to reach out to the other in love; that love will not allow me to remain quiet about the goodness that I have experienced; that love will make goodness so contagious and ofcourse everything around me will be created anew! I can never forget a statement  made by one of the parents from a group I had just addressed: there is something about you Christians that makes you happy people! Yes... can we stand up and accept the challenge: The Love of Christ urges us!

WORD 2day : 20th June, 2015

Sense of Sufficiency - sign of sanctity!

Saturday,  11th week in Ordinary Time
2 Cor 12: 1-10; Mt 6: 24-34

The rich and the poor,  the affluent and the needy,  the influential and the ordinary... they seem to be no different from each other! They wish for more and more and more. And at no point in their life they seem to have a sense of Sufficiency.

St.  Paul places a lot of importance on this attitude and considers it even a sign of sanctity. In his letter to the Philipians, Paul considers himself 'blessed' with a sense of Sufficiency, in plenty and in want (Phil 4: 11,12). In our families,  in our personal lives,  in our social life, in our religious communities... where does this virtue stand?

Be it Indian spirituality,  western monastic spirituality, eastern yogic spirituality. ..all of these seem to harp upon having fewer and fewer attachments as a way to sanctity. Where do I stand in this virtue?

WORD 2day : 19th June, 2015

The heart,  the eye and the lesson

Friday,  11th week ìn ordinary time
2 Cor 11:18,21-30; Mt 6: 19-23

Jesus speaks of the heart and the eye and the importance of these to a being. St. Paul presents himself as a madman who is putting himself through so many trials knowing well they lurk round the corner but still risking them all. We have hosts and hosts of martyrs who have died for what they believed in, Saints who lived for God and God's purposes till the last breath of their lives, and people who continue to risk their lives for causes they commit themselves to.

Where lies their strength?  In their heart and in their eye,  says the Word. Heart refers to their Priority and eyes to their Perspective!

When God becomes my priority,  nothing else would matter to me more than being Godly. When God becomes my perspective my whole world changes,  because I begin to see everything the way God sees them. What is expected of us thus is, we form our hearts and our eyes,  that we ascertain our priority and clarify our perspective!

WORD 2day : 18th June, 2015

A God who Relates
Thursday,  11th week in Ordinary Time
2 Cor 11: 1-11; Mt 6: 7-15

St Paul wishes that the believers stand in front of the Lord as brides and Jesus proposes a parent-children relationship between God and humankind. A Christian vision of God would refer to God in terms of relationship believers have with the Divine,  rather than in terms of a power or an impersonal being.

This relationship should be characterised by two elements: Cordiality and Difference. Cordiality would be the closeness a person feels with the Divine according to one's experience and need. But closeness alone would not suffice because a genuine cordiality should lead one to a concrete difference in one's life and in those around.   A truly Christian life would be filled with meaningful relationships as we port within us the image of a relating God.

WORD 2day : 17th June, 2015

Value added deeds
Wednesday,  11th week in Ordinary Time
2 Cor 9: 6-11; Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18

I know a person, a good friend of mine,  who is a trainer. He does the training of the younger cadets of the organisation that he was trained in. He distributes training kits and accessories on his own cost to those young trainees and does not receive any payment for his services other than the train ticket for his travel up and down! This is going on for quite a few years now and I have not revealed his identity because he will not like it absolutely!

The true value of whatever we do depends more on why we do than on what we do. What we do will vary according to our ability and the context provided possibilities. But the why will never change whether what I do increases or reduces. What I would wish to reap I will reap; if it is popularity or publicity that I wish,  exactly that I will reap! If it is true satisfaction and divine interior joy that I wish,  precisely that the Almighty will grant!

WORD 2day : 16th June, 2015

God: the poor businessman!

Tuesday,  11th week in Ordinary Time
2 Cor 8: 1-9; Mt 5: 38-42

Among us friends we have a good laugh whenever we think of an elderly religious who was put incharge of the farm that belongs to a community. Every year at the annual audit he was used to repeating a remark, in his own inimitable modulation: "what put I get,  what I get I put...no profit, no loss,  no problem".

If we look at the love that God had lavished upon humanity,  he would not have got back even a tiny fraction of what he has put in! Incarnation is just one of the many mighty investments that God had made on our behalf (cf.  2 Cor 8:9)... but consider the dividends! God seems to be such a bad business person and the strangest part of it is,  Jesus invites us to follow God's logic! Nothing else is fitting enough for true God's children. Let's love without counting the cost.

WORD 2day : 15th June, 2015

Be compassionate-right here and right now!
Monday,  11th week in Ordinary Time
2 Cor 6: 1-10; Mt 5: 38-42

The better is the enemy of the good,  Don Bosco used to say, in the context of doing good to the other. At times I have caught myself lamenting the times and the conditions instead of doing whatever little I could to express my true compassion. If only I were someone else or if only I were somewhere else or if only I had such and such a possibility... these are the yearning for the better that neglects the good that is already available.

The Gospel today invites us to go out of our way to express or computation to the other and the first reading adds that now is the time and now is the hour for it. We may not be able to give or do great things for those whom we come across in dire need,  but we can always be compassionate, caring and respectful towards them,  wherever we are! Does that need a special condition or time?